Abercrombie & Fitch recorded a 0.3% rise in FY net profit to $335.4m.

Fourth-quarter sales growth was driven by sales increases across regions and brands.

Abercrombie brands saw 35% growth in net sales, continuing an impressive multi-quarter growth trend, while Hollister brands grew 9%, delivering a third consecutive quarter of sales growth.

Fran Horowitz, CEO, said: “By staying close to our customers, tightly controlling inventories and continuing to operate with financial discipline, our team delivered year-over-year fourth-quarter operating margin expansion of 800 basis points, reaching 15.3%.

“Following several years of transformation across our brands, people and operating model, fiscal 2023 was a defining year for our company. In the first full year of our Always Forward Plan, we executed our playbook, delivering the right product, voice and experience across regions and brands to our global customers. Abercrombie Brands finished an exceptional year with 27% net sales growth over 2022, reflecting a strong 10% compound annual growth rate from fiscal 2019. Hollister Brands completed a return to sales growth of 6% over fiscal 2022, reconnecting with teen customers. Operationally, we fuelled sales growth using our well-developed inventory chase capabilities while funding critical long-term investments in our people, stores and key technology platforms. Compared to 2022, we grew annual net sales 16%, improved gross profit rate by 600 basis points and delivered an operating margin of 11.3%, our highest in 15 years and above our 2025 Always Forward Plan operating margin target.

“We entered fiscal 2024 in a position of strength with momentum across our brand portfolio. The success of our playbook gives us confidence that we can now shift more of our focus to expanding our global customer base. This year, our goal is to deliver sustainable, profitable growth while making the necessary investments to build and support our longer-term ambition of $5 billion in global sales.”